Unusually aggressive BO roo

[Roodey]

My roo is quite the extraordinary bird in the sense that his existence was unplanned and he nearly lost his life by his own foolishness. See here how he's turned out to be a generally great leader of the flock.

The problem is this: I take care of my mother with Alzheimer's disease, she lives with me. As such she doesn't have the cogency or awareness that will generally make a rooster, without overly aggressive tendencies, back off. He has indeed jumped her and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.Though now that she's aware I'm fairly certain it won't happen again, and the dog is also aware, he loves to be the protection. Dizzy, is not aggressive with me nor most people, with the exception of a couple so far. But my mom absolutely wants to kill him.

Now as you can see in my linked post we have a new flock that i'm fairly sure has 3 new roos. So what i'm trying to ascertain is whether one of the young ones would less likely be aggressive, or if I can only wait and see. There's only going to be one roo out of the 4 in the end, my preference is for this one, Dizzy, but I have to consider the best one for us as well. If Dizzy was going to be eaten the time would be better now. That way one of the 3 new could become the one, and the rest could go before they really got to be competing.

I know BO's are notoriously docile so basically it boils down to how unusual this Dizzy is. I'd just like to hear from fellow BO rooster owners what their experience is, particularly if you've had an aggressive one.

Thanks,
Zak

 

[donrae]

A person with Alzheimer's needs to be protected in the same way a child does. As you stated, her safety awareness is so labile, she may be aware one day and oblivious the next. I'd advise no roosters, or only confined roosters with Mom having no access to the coop, same as a family with young children. He could do serious damage to her, and the last thing you need is for her to get attacked, panic and fall and break something.

 

[Roodey]

A person with Alzheimer's needs to be protected in the same way a child does. As you stated, her safety awareness is so labile, she may be aware one day and oblivious the next. I'd advise no roosters, or only confined roosters with Mom having no access to the coop, same as a family with young children. He could do serious damage to her, and the last thing you need is for her to get attacked, panic and fall and break something.

OK I appreciate this but dealing with AD doesn't make a rooster impossible, just more difficult, she's definitely not in the coop with Dizzy in it, a good ways up the hill from the house. My mom grew up on a ranch in the country and is tough as iron physically, she's assumed the aggressive role with a stick around the rooster. We have 10 acres in the country so the majority of the time Dizzy is nowhere near the house where she might be.

If it was only my mom Dizzy had gone after that would be one thing I couldn't deny. But he's also gone after another not so nice neighbor who has picked a battle with him crowing near his house. So it's possible he's just a youngun, and will outgrow this phase. Because he's very domicile in general and BO like, similarly he's very gentile with the hens and does not try to dominate them. I just need an idea to gauge how typical aggression is in a young BO rooster, about a year old and similarly whether it's going to be better or worse to start over with a new rooster.

 

[WalkingOnSunshine]

If it was only my mom Dizzy had gone after that would be one thing I couldn't deny. But he's also gone after another not so nice neighbor who has picked a battle with him crowing near his house. So it's possible he's just a youngun, and will outgrow this phase. Because he's very domicile in general and BO like, similarly he's very gentile with the hens and does not try to dominate them. I just need an idea to gauge how typical aggression is in a young BO rooster, about a year old and similarly whether it's going to be better or worse to start over with a new rooster.

Roosters don't get less aggressive with age, they get more aggressive. If you have a very human-aggressive youngster, he's not going to grow out of it, and he'll probably get worse. Right about a year old is when roosters show their true personalities, in my experience.

I've never had a BO rooster, but I've had many other breeds: RIR, Barred Rock, Ameraucana, Easter Egger, Marans, Langshans, Jersey Giant, Australorp, Leghorn, Delaware... I'm probably missing some. In each of the breeds, the rooster was a rooster. I've had an aggressive Delaware and several very sweet RIR (reputed to be aggressive, hard to keep roosters). Those that stayed non-aggressive up to 18 months old were always non-aggressive. Those that became aggressive never got better (and were culled).

I would give a new rooster a chance. You won't know his true personality until he's over a year old and has been alpha roo for a month or so, though. You can take a guess about how he'll act by how he responds to your current alpha roo, however. If he very aggressively pushes the alpha to to try to take the top spot, he might not be a good choice. I'd go for one that's a bit more laid-back.

 

[24279102]

Any animal that shows signs of aggression should not be taken lightly. It would only take one accident and you would not forgive yourself if your Mom or anyone else got hurt because of him. It sounds like you have other options here but the decision is yours to make.

 

[wekiva bird]

Lot of hatchery birds and be bad with aggression. I have BO, BR,Delawares, EE , Amerucana. and a few RIR hen. they did not come from a hatchery they came from good breeders.

 

[Roodey]

Lot of hatchery birds and be bad with aggression. I have BO, BR,Delawares, EE , Amerucana. and a few RIR hen. they did not come from a hatchery they came from good breeders.

This thought occurred to me as well, perhaps having a mother to raise the young ones will make them more likely to be well tempered. Dizzy did have a fair amount of trauma in his youth.


Quote: I would give a new rooster a chance. You won't know his true personality until he's over a year old and has been alpha roo for a month or so, though. You can take a guess about how he'll act by how he responds to your current alpha roo, however. If he very aggressively pushes the alpha to to try to take the top spot, he might not be a good choice. I'd go for one that's a bit more laid-back.

Definitely this seems the best course. With only 8 hens it'll be a tight window to find the right one, but it's worth waiting no doubt.